The situation of women in Israel is a complex one. While in many respects women enjoy advanced liberal citizenship rights, in other respects, especially in the domain of personal status law, they suffer from serious restrictions on their rights and from discrimination. I will argue that this discrimination is the result of Israel's commitment to maintaining its character as a Jewish state through a preservation of a Jewish majority in Israel. This commitment results in legal restrictions on the right to marry and on the right to have an abortion, both of which, as I will show, are strongly related to communal preservation.